Diablo Cody had her first taste of cinematic terror at age 7 or 8 when she saw Poltergeist, the 1982 haunted-house thriller conceived by Steven Spielberg. "I was allowed to see it because it was PG," she recalls. "The ratings guidelines have changed now, but there is a man tearing his face off in that. It's this violent, visceral film that played on everything that children like: TV and toys. It was sadistic."

A mixed bag of pop this week. Anjani Thomas collaborated with Leonard Cohen on a minimalistic debut that meets with Elysa Gardner's approval. Michael Bolton "Swings Sinatra," but Sinatra would probably punch him right back if he were alive. And Edwin McCain sounds like a street-corner prophet in a thought-provoking collection.